Looks like we finally are going to get some rain for all the guys who need it. And I will finally have some NEW ducks moving in.

We went out Tuesday, shot 2 green heads and a widgeon, at 10:30 we pulled the dekes, and shot 2 more greenies. We had a decent number of ducks, but they just wouldn't commit it. Maybe next time I'll hunt with just 4 or 5 dekes????

Someone might not have been covered up, or wearing a facemask, but I doubt that. It is your decoy spread. I think you should use less decoys and put them in a new formation/setup, and use less mallards and more other species. But if you will be hunting this cold front coming I think you need to use as many decoys as possible, but put them in a different formation than the other hunters. This seems to work for me, it's always the decoy spread that's the tricky part for me also. I think 4 or 5 decoys is too few, especially at a river or lake, I usually hunt at lakes, and about 10-12 decoys is the least I can use without not being able to seeing them from across the lake. But if you're hunting in smaller waters go ahead and try as few as you want.

I hunt my private slough, the ducks are using a part that is flooded into our pasture, very short grass, and limited cover. We put dekes all over the flooded field, not really any formation, as I have never seen ducks sitting in a J,C,W, or whatever, I just don't believe in that. we'll put two or three here, two or three there... etc. I think the ducks were just getting decoy shy. The number of ducks on my slough went from 4-5 hundred after that cold front on Dec. 1... down to 200 mid-Dec. and around 100 X-Mas time... Now there was only 40-50 using it daily, and I think they were just getting smarter.

What I need are some new,dumber ducks to move in this weekend!!!
And some more rain to flood even more of my field!!

By the way, the field is probably 1 acre flooded, and the slough is 2 acres or so flooded.

I don't mean a letter, that looks very unrealistic. I mean instead of 2 wads and a lane in the middle(which is what I see on 90% of decoy spreads) put groups of 2 and 3 separated, or if there is a crosswind put just 1 big group upwind, or if theres not many ducks put only a few decoys out. I don't really believe that the letter formations help at all, I've never seen ducks in a letter shape except divers. It seems like most hunters don't even adjust their spread to the conditions; a lot always put 2 separated wads or a U no matter what the conditions are. Also canada goose decoys make it more visible and acts as confidence decoy for ducks. Most hunters are catching on to that.

I have 8 Canadian floaters that I use on the river, I am gonna use them tomorrow morning. I ahve been thinking about getting 3 doz. snow goose shells to put on the bank of the field for confidence dekes.